Steven Short

Reporter/Producer

photo by Peter Belanger

Steven has been with KALW News since it’s beginnings in 2004. His history, art and public interest stories have won awards for Breaking News, Feature Writing and Explanatory Journalism. Some of his reports have aired nationally on NPR.

He is responsible for The Source, a recurring feature on the origins of Bay Area place names. He also researches most of the listings for the Crosscurrents local music calendar and compiles the weekly online Cannabis News Round-up.

Few civic institutions in San Francisco pre-date the 1906 earthquake. One is the cable car, invented here in 1873. Another one is The Golden Gate Park Band. It dates from 1882, when it was a support unit of the California National Guard. Now it’s a Sunday afternoon mainstay at The Spreckles Temple of Music in Golden Gate Park.

Think of a ghost town, and San Francisco Bay is not likely to come to mind. Yet the remnants of such a place are currently sinking into the marshes near Fremont. Back in the 1920s, the settlement of Drawbridge boasted about 90 buildings, most having some connection to duck hunting.

It was just a year ago this week that California voters approved the legal sale of cannabis to adults. And in less than two months that law is supposed to go into effect. But there seem to be some complications.

General Mariano Vallejo, the 19th century founder of Sonoma, had a lot of influence in the North Bay. He’s got a town named after him, of course, and he also had something to do with naming the neighboring county of Marin. KALW’s Steven Short tells us all about it in this episode of “The Source.”

Four hundred items in one exhibit? What were they thinking? Who has the time, or interest, for that much material? I was getting museum fatigue just reading the press release for the Walker Evans photo retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

The host of a radio call-in program I frequently hear often informs listeners that the day’s guest “is out with a new book.” This always makes me wonder what other kind of book would be promoted. Well, children’s book author James Agee, of San Francisco, answers that question with “Terrific” and “Milo’s Hat Trick.”

It’s throwback Thursday, when we go back to the Summer of Love, in 1967...

Today’s music is by Jimi Hendrix, a Seattle performer who is spending a lot of time in San Francisco these days. He’s getting a lot of attention for his fiery guitar playing — and we mean that literally.

You can expect to find Jimi Hendrix taking the stage at the Winter Ballroom in San Francisco, where he plays often.